The Liberty Times Editorial: Taiwan can learn from Dalai Lama

Furthermore, Chinese threats deprived Taiwanese of their right to hold a referendum on the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) before it was signed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the CCP last year.

Under the Ma administration, it has become clear that the government now requires China’s approval before it will let the Taiwanese public exercise the right to hold a referendum.

Given all the Chinese capital flowing into Taiwan and the flamboyant Chinese philanthropist Chen Guangbiao (陳光標) handing out cash, one has to wonder if such moves are not a covert way of paving the way for the China-leaning KMT to win the upcoming elections?

On the eve of the 2008 presidential election, Ma issued a statement condemning the CCP for conducting a military clampdown in Tibet and demanded that the Chinese government initiate talks with the Dalai Lama.

The Tibetan independence movement continues to grow with the Dalai Lama mapping out a visionary strategy for its future, whereas Ma, now singing the same tune as Beijing, sees the Dalai Lama as a “troublemaker.”

Ma also said that Taiwan’s future should be decided by Taiwanese and that “all 23 million Taiwanese hope to return to the UN and we will continue to work toward that goal.”

All these promises have come to naught, disappointing his supporters.

Sticking to Ma’s goal of eventual reunification, Taiwan is destined to gradually lose its sovereignty and become more and more like a provincial Chinese government, as a result of which Taiwanese democracy will regress to the same low standards we see in China.

It is tragic to see Taiwan’s hard-won democracy being so willfully destroyed by Ma. Democracy is like the air we breathe: We pay it no heed in normal times, but as soon as we don’t have it, we suffocate.

The next presidential election is a crucial moment, one when the people of Taiwan must stand up and defend democracy. If we make the same mistake as in 2008, then Taiwanese democracy will by thoroughly undermined; the White Terror era will return, perhaps followed closely by a period of Red Terror from across the Taiwan Strait.

Once that happens it is only a matter of time before the Chinese military suppression of Tibet will be replayed in Taiwan.